12/56 From house to home, and back

When you decide to change your lifestyle, then you achieve that goal, and get used to it, it’s not easy to go back to what was before.

This is what is happening to me. I got used to live on my own, to have my spaces, to do things at my rythm, to listen only to myself.
For some people this might sound very lonely, for me it’s just perfect. I need my space, I need my silence, I need my loneliness.

When it became possible for me to live the way I needed to live, after sharing houses for 8 years, I was the happiest person.

This lasted for 2 and a half years. Now it’s time for me to go back.

There are two reasons for that: prices are too high, there is no choice really.
It’s not that I don’t like the other people I know I will most probably live with. Quite the opposite! They are nice and respectful. In the same way, it’s very easy for me to respect others’ habits. It’s just a state of mind.

The other night, I went to a public meeting about the housing problem in Ireland.
I heard some terrible stories, and I ended up feeling lucky.

I learnt that a lot of people received the same notice letter as mine, and it’s not true that they are selling (or sold) these houses. They are just kicking us out, in order to rent it to other people for double the price.

There is no regulation to control this. And this problem is now a real emergency.

I want to live in Ireland. I want to live in Ireland the way I like.

It’s a human right to have a house that can really feel like home, that you don’t have to share with strangers forever.

And even though I’m ready to buy a property, I can’t. Simply because there is nothing decent to buy, or land for sale to build on.

This is what really hurts me so deep. That I can’t choose to live the way I want to.
I’m sure I’ll find an ad online about this house for double the price in a couple of months, and a queue of people fighting to get hold of it.

In a matter of months, a whole eco-system of lives and neighbours relationships will completely change.

Honestly, I’m surprised by the Irish people. They managed to abolish the water bill, for which I just paid about 50€ a couple of times, and they are relatively silent for such a major problem.

Again, I feel so lucky to still have the hope of buying in a not too far future. While I heard older people, who have completely lost this hope.

But I also truly believe that something will happen, something that will show how locals and immigrants like myself can cooperate to make this island better. Because we feel the same love for it.

As an update on my house hunting diary, I unfortunately have no updates on the matter.